Mid January 2021

Introduction

The San Juan Star, the English language newspaper here, devotes two issues in late December to a recap of significant news events. I’ll use that as a starting point for my description of events as I experienced them. I’ll liven the post with images. They won’t necessarily relate to the topic but they’ll add some color.

January 2020

On January 3, the World Health Organization reported an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new type of corona virus. The first cases were reported in Wuhan, China.

A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the south western part of the island on Jaunary 6, Three Kings Day. A swarm of earthquakes had begun in that region on December 28, often with four or five small tremors each day.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occured in the early morning hours of January 7, again just off the south western coast. We felt the tremors here in San juan, about 70 miles away, and felt several aftershocks during that day. The earthqauke was strong enough to cause generating stations along the south coast to stop. Power went off across the whole island as crews reviewed damage. Fortunately, the power outage here lasted only six or so hours.

Puerto Rico is in a seismically complex zone and earthquakes are a constant risk. I wrote about that in an earlier post. Refresh your memory here.

On January 17, citizens were working to distribute supplies to people affected by the earthquakes. Officials found a warehouse in the La Guancha section of Ponce filled with supplies (cots, bottled water, disposable diapers, gas stoves, FEMA blue tarps, etc.) dating from October 2017 and that should have been distributed after Hurricane Maria. An activist posted a video on social media; thousands flocked to the site demanding that the supplies be distributed.

That same day, Governor Wanda Vasquez Garced fired Carlos Acevedo, then Director of the Emergency Management and Disaster Bureau. At the time, the Governor stated she did not know of the warehouse. A subsequent investigation revealed she had signed an “Joint Operational Catastrophic Incident Plan” that noted the warehouse and its cached supplies.

On Jaunary 27, the Puerto Rico Health Secretary, Rafael Rodriguez Marcado, said he thought covid would not arrive on the island since there were no direct flights from China to Puerto Rico. He was more worried about the illegal aliens arriving from China as potential virus carriers. He did not give numbers for how many individuals that might entail.

February

San Juan hosted the Caribbean Series (Serie del Carribe) at the Hiram Bitthorn Stadium in Hato Rey. Five countries besides San Juan sent teams. Click here for an earlier post.

On February 24, Neulisa Alexa Luciano Ruiz, a homeless, Black, trans woman was murdered in Toa Baja, in the eastern part of the San Juan metro complex. Someone had called the police and reported, falsely, that Ruiz had used the women’s bathroom in a local McDonalds. The Puerto Rican LGBTQIAP+ community held a vigil at the Unversity of Puerto Rico to pay respect and raise awareness. The theme was that trans lives matter and deserve better.

There has not yet been an arrest in the case.

March

On March 1, Health Chief Rodriguez Marcado said that the coronavirus could arrive in Puerto Rico after all. He noted the first case in the Dominican Republic, brought by an Italian woman there on holiday.

On March 8, the Puerto Rican Health Department noted its first suspicious case – a 68 year old Italian woman who had flown from Italy to Miami to board the cruise ship Costa Luminosa. San Juan was its first port call; Jamaica had barred it for corona virus fears. She was treated at the Ashford Presbyterian Hospital in Condado,

A Panamanian doctor arrived and vacationed in San Juan during the first full week of March. Among other things, he attended the National Day of Salsa – with 25,000 other people – at the Hiram Bitthorn Stadium in Hato Rey. He discovered, upon his return to Panama, he was covid-19 positive. The Puerto Rican Health Department, starting on March 11, scrambled to trace his activities while here.

Governor Vazquez declared a state of emergency on March 12.

Rodriguez Marcado resigned as Secretary of Health, effective March 13. There were at that time three confirmed covid cases on the island.

The first covid-related death occurred during the week on March 15. She was a 48-year old private school teacher, married to a police officer. There were no reports of pre-existing conditions.

Governor Vazquez ordered a full lock-down starting March 19.

April

On April 5, the Health Department executed a contract with contractors Apex and 313 LLC for around a million coronovirus rapid test kits. The contract was worth $38 million dollars. Neither company had experience with medical device management; both had ties to the ruling New Progressive Party. Governor Vazquez, on April 8, defended the contract, calling the arguments against it “distractions.” She alleged that no permission was required since the island was under a state of emergency. Natalie Jaresko, Executive Director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board, stated on April 9 that all government purchases were subject to review.

By the end of April, 92 people here had died from covid.

May

A group of mothers aided by various non-profits sued the government to keep school cafeterias open. They argued that, given the high rate of poverty among school-aged children (6 in 10 by some estimates), the school cafeterias provided a major part of their nutritional needs. The government counter-argument pointed out that 64% of cafeteria workers were elderly and at increased covid risk. On May 7, a judge agreed to consider the lawsuit.

On May 27, 27 year old Erica Rodriguez became the youngest Puerto Rican yet to die of covid.

There were 129 recorded covid deaths as of May 27.

June

Governor Vazquez on June 1 signed new Civil and Electoral Codes. The LGBTQIAP+ and various community organizations opposed the legislation, arguing the process had lacked transparency and the code could create confusion over earned rights such as abortion, marriage equality, gender change on birth certificates, and surrogacy.

The new Electoral Code went into effect before the primaries.

On June 11, Governor Vazquez allowed some businesses to reopen. External tourism remained closed.

As of June 24, 149 Puerto Ricans had died from covid.

July

In a July 12 interview with The New York Times, former secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke reported that President Trump’s first reaction to Hurricane Maria in 2017 was to sell Puerto Rico.

Protestors, some in traditional Taino clothing, demanded the U. S. Government remove statues of Spanish explorers, including those of Christopher Columbus and Ponce de Leon. This happened on July 11.

On July 16, Governor Vazquez again ordered the closure of bars, movie theaters, and gymnasiums.

On the last day of July,Tropical Storm Isaias passed north of the island but close enough to cause damage. About 448,000 people and 23 hospitals lost power; 150,000 lost water service because of the power outage or blocked intakes. Yauco had no power and was cut off by floods or fallen trees.

August

On August 3, Jose Ortiz resigned. He had been the CEO of PREPA, the state-owned power utility. Thousands were still without power. Ortiz could not explain why the power grid, rebuilt after Hurricane Maria, was so vulnerable to gale-force winds.

Island-wide primary elections, orginally scheduled for June, began on August 9. A shortage of ballots in some polling places caused some polling places to reopen on August 16. Governor Vazquez lost her primary.

A 8 cm thick auxillary cable pulled out of its socket at the Arecibo radio telescope during the early morning hours of August 10. The cable ripped through some of the aluminum panels making up the dish. A main cable snapped on November 10; the whole structure collapsed on December 1.

On August 17, the FBI arrested Representative Maria Milagros Charbonier on corruption charges. She was known for her anti-LGBTQ positions.

September

October

An illegal landfill was found in Aguas Buenas. The mayor explained the pandemic’s lockdown had given residents time to do home remodeling projects. The landfill was needed for the trash from those projects. The municipality had requested a permit for the landfill; the request had been tied up for five months.

November

Island wide elections were conducted on November 3. I wrote about them earlier – click here to read that post.

On November 5, the FBI arrested Representative Nestor Alonso on corruption charges.

On November 9. a contract dispute between LUMA Energy and PREPA, the state-owned power authority, comes to light. PREPA may have to pay LUMA $100 million more than expected. The disputes hinges on LUMA’s tax empt status.

On November 16, the Puerto Rican Department of Transportation (DTOP) introduced a new digital ticketing system. The DTOP claimed the new system will end the incorrect issuing of traffic tickets and make routine tasks like license or registration renewal easier.

On November 19, Resident Commissioner Jennifer Gonzalez Colon made a case for statehood on the floor of the US Congress. She noted 623,000 of those who cast ballots in the November 3 election voted yes on the statehood issue, a clear majority. She also noted the question of statehood gained more votes than any other party or candidate on the ballot.

On November 24, Special Independent Prosecutors Miguel Colon Ortiz and Leticia Pabon said they did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute participants in the Telegram chat scandal. That scandal, also known as RikiLeaks, began when the press published transcripts of chats among then Governor Ricardo Rossello Nevares and his staff. The chats were often homophobic, misogynist and otherwise outrageous but apparently not illegal. The scandal did cause Rosello to resign in August 2019 after several days of riots.

December

Yashaira Alicea, a respiratory therapist in a San Juan emergency room, was the first person in Puerto Rico to get vaccinated against covid. Dr. Samuel Suarez also received the vaccine. He treated Dona Rosa, the italian tourist from the cruise ship Costa Luminosa. This happened on December 15.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz said on December 23 she would consider returning to politics and run for office in 2024. In the meantime, she had accepted an offer from an unnamed university in Massachusetts. She said she would write a book about her two mayoral terms with emphasis on crisis management. In August,Cruz lost her party’s primary for governor.

On December 28, Governor Vazquez signed an executive order saying the reconstruction of the Arecibo Observatory was an official policy objective of the Puerto Rican government.

As of the end of December, 1,521 Puerto Ricans had died of covid.

Notes and Sources

Most of this material is from the San Juan Star. I augmented that information with various Wikipedia articles including 2020 in Puerto Rico, and COVID-19 Pandemic in Puerto Rico.